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Wednesday, September 01, 2010

By
Benjamin Skipper

So I tried Endangered Species' 72% dark chocolate with raspberries. I'm disappointed, but it's good enough that I'd perhaps eat it again. It utilizes dehydrated raspberry flesh rather than using an extract, so it doesn't have the flavor integration and consistency you would find in ES's mint or cherry, which makes it inferior in my opinion.

However, the fruit flesh does give it a nice appearance. It's combined into the chocolate very inconsistently, rather than smoothly, so when you get into it it has this nice spotty bright pink appearance. In a way it gives me an impression of it being particularly feminine due to its pinkness, but it doesn't bother me and won't prevent me from eating it since all sweet foods remind me of women, therefore leaving me fine with the prospect of feminine sweets. In fact, why not make all sweets feminine in a way? It's a nice association.

Taste-wise it's particularly mild. The chocolate is good as always, but the chunks of raspberry are too mild and end up playing as quiet background singers. There is tartness, but not much. As I said, I'd still eat it again, but I'd like to see ES utilize an extract to intensify the raspberry flavor, as they use such extracts for their mint and cherry bars. In fact, what would really be nice is if they utilized both an extract and fruit flesh; the extract for flavor intensification, integration, and consistency, and the fruit flesh for appearance enhancement. That would be wonderful.

All in all, it's a nice bar, but you may want to pass it up unless you really like raspberries or mild tartness. Fruit-wise I think the cherry bar is superior, and you might come out alright if you stick to bars with fruit extracts. I might buy it again, but with my current supply of bulk chocolate and new flavors to try it sinks really low on my wish list. I'd *really* like to see a bar with apricot extract.

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Chocolate Review: Endangered Species 72% Raspberry

So I tried Endangered Species' 72% dark chocolate with raspberries. I'm disappointed, but it's good enough that I'd perhaps eat it again. It utilizes dehydrated raspberry flesh rather than using an extract, so it doesn't have the flavor integration and consistency you would find in ES's mint or cherry, which makes it inferior in my opinion.

However, the fruit flesh does give it a nice appearance. It's combined into the chocolate very inconsistently, rather than smoothly, so when you get into it it has this nice spotty bright pink appearance. In a way it gives me an impression of it being particularly feminine due to its pinkness, but it doesn't bother me and won't prevent me from eating it since all sweet foods remind me of women, therefore leaving me fine with the prospect of feminine sweets. In fact, why not make all sweets feminine in a way? It's a nice association.

Taste-wise it's particularly mild. The chocolate is good as always, but the chunks of raspberry are too mild and end up playing as quiet background singers. There is tartness, but not much. As I said, I'd still eat it again, but I'd like to see ES utilize an extract to intensify the raspberry flavor, as they use such extracts for their mint and cherry bars. In fact, what would really be nice is if they utilized both an extract and fruit flesh; the extract for flavor intensification, integration, and consistency, and the fruit flesh for appearance enhancement. That would be wonderful.

All in all, it's a nice bar, but you may want to pass it up unless you really like raspberries or mild tartness. Fruit-wise I think the cherry bar is superior, and you might come out alright if you stick to bars with fruit extracts. I might buy it again, but with my current supply of bulk chocolate and new flavors to try it sinks really low on my wish list. I'd *really* like to see a bar with apricot extract.